New Media, New Challenges: Towards a Theory of Transactional Diversity for Public Relations

Abstract

New media’s influence upon diversity, access, and public communication has been a subject of focused concern since a series of reports in the 1990s documented a "digital divide" -– a growing chasm between the those with access to new media technologies and those without (NTIA, 1996). These studies, released through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, chronicled expanding disparities of computer access among populations of color, when compared against the white population majority. These contrasts coincided with the economic and income differences documented from comparisons of communities of color on the whole, with those of white communities. And although similar disadvantages were noted between rural and urban populations, the discourse of the "digital divide" came to symbolize a growing chasm between technology "haves" and "have nots" -- and this difference often turned on race.

This paper examines some touchstones of new media development, how race has informed our thinking about the location of new media in society, and what the implications may be for public relations conceptualizations about publics, identity and technology.

Keywords: new media, diversity, public relations, mobile media, digital divide